This on-going study is designed to develop, test, and begin to apply sample survey procedures that will make it possible to actively involve the public in developing ethical standards for research on human subjects. The study will ascertain: (a) levels of complexity at which value questions involving cost/risk: benefit dilemmas in human research can be conveyed to the general public; (b) the extent to which these issues are salient to people; and (c) the extent to which the public is willing and able to make judgments about them. We have begun to obtain data that will help define a practical, consensually-based research ethic, an objective with important advantages for both the research scientists and those charged with responsibility to formulate ethical standards, as well as for the human subject in research. The main emphasis of the project will be to develop a sound, well-tested survey methodology for obtaining informed public judgments regarding these complex ethical issues. Accordingly, the project is devoting a great deal of time to pretesting preliminary instruments and questioning strategies. Data will be collected in three systematic pilot studies, each of which include a cross-section sample and smaller subsamples of particular interest.